Call to resurrect town’s Royal British Legion

A TOWCESTER man is appealing to people who want to support the nations ex-serviceman by helping to reform the town’s branch of the Royal British Legion.

David Reed has never been in the forces but believes there is a desire to the resurrect the branch which he thinks dissolved in the 1980s. The inspiration for the reformation came from the RBL standard in St Lawrence Church which is now showing signs of its age.

Mr Reed wanted to find away to replace the standard and the Greens Norton branch, which conducts the poppy appeal in the town, agreed to help on the condition that a sub-branch can be formed in Towcester.

Mr Reed said there are still former and current servicemen in the district who would benefit from both the social and benevolent sides of the RBL.

Mr Reed said: “A lot of people are surprised when they find out Towcester doesn’t have its own branch and in the past week or so I’ve had a few people contact me to say they are very interested. That ranges from survivors of the second world war through to people in their 30s

who’d done a stint in the forces and are now in civi-street.”

“And it’s not just the social side of things, eventually we might be able to take up cases to fight for them and get them the support they deserve.”

Only a handful of members are needed to form the sub-branch, but if more than 30 come forward the branch can be independent.